Old signage on Whitley Street shop revealed

The Whitley Pump received photos this week of the brief moment when work on the gym at 43 Whitley Street revealed the sign for Whitby’s Camera Shop, a previous occupant of the building.

Whitby’s were not the only photography related business to use the premises in the past. Owen’s portrait photographers also worked from there in the 1920s and 1930s. The photograph below from Reading library’s image collection was taken by Alice Owen, but the sitters are unknown.

The work on the building will convert the Express Fitness Gymnasium to a shop with residential accommodation above.

Links

Daphne Barnes-Phillips, The Top of Whitley revisited. Corridor Press 2013. (see p8 for a list of 2013 and 1960 businesses and residents and p92 for the same c.1930).